My Grandpapa died two weeks ago. He was 92 years old. Longevity seems to be something on my father’s line, on both sides as my Grandmama is still alive at 92 as well. I never knew my grandfather very well. As a child, my parents took us to visit them in Quebec, on average once a year until we hit our teens and then we seemed to less often. Probably partially because my parents split up at that time and unfortunately that often means family visits aren’t as frequent. So basically I’d met my grandfather, who also spoke only french, a handful of times. Yet I knew with complete certainty that he loved me. Everytime I saw him, he’d give me a bug hug, then while we were sitting, he’d reach over and pat me on the knee with this big grin on his face, while nodding his head. He never said much and while I could understand and speak a small portion of french, we never seemed to talk talk much. There was an unspoken affection between us. At the funeral, I spoke with Aunts and cousins, many who I had not seen since I was a child. They all relayed the same feeling of grandpapa, yet for them all francophone, language wasn’t even an issue, yet they all understood about this expression of love he had. It shows that language isn’t needed to portray the emotion of caring and love.

I took Alec with me to the funeral and we stayed with my Dad. It was wonderful seeing my sister and my nephews again after a two year period. My Dad was so grateful that we had been able to come. If only my brother in Thailand had been able to be there and then our family would have been all together, which hasn’t happened since our Mom died in 2000. 

We did a bit of site seeing while visiting with my Dad and took the kids to the biodome, an imax film, the science center and went to watch the international fireworks. I’ve done all of those a few times over the years, but I still always enjoy them and seeing this time through Alec’s eyes made it all new to me. 

Then when Alec and I got back home, Bram was so upset that he had been left behind (too long of a drive in too short of a period) that I decided to take them both camping the following weekend. So we went to Hopewell Cape and had a great time. You can see the pictures in the flicr badge. Taking 2 kids camping by myself was a bit of a challeng at times (putting up the tent) but we had a fabulous time and may go again before the summer is over.